The ASH Taxonomic Committee was established following a motion passed at the 2014 Annual General Meeting. The committee was tasked with establishing a single list of Australian frog and reptile species that are recognised by the Australian Society of Herpetologists. Decisions by the Taxonomic Committee are governed by the motion passed unanimously at the 2013 Annual General Meeting of the Society which expressed support for the Kaiser et al. initiative (2013. Herp. Rev. 44:8–23), its support for the position statement on taxonomic vandalism by Taxonomy Australia, and the establishment of a Positive List of Journals and other publications to clarify the boundary between scientific publication and non-scientific publications.

The ASH Official List of Australian Species will be monitored and updated regularly. It will be formally updated prior to each ASH AGM but the list is a living document and regular updates will include taxonomic and associated nomenclatural changes as they appear in the peer-reviewed literature and come to be accepted. All updates will appear on this website and will be communicated to the Australian Faunal Directory and the international Reptile Database for implementation on these lists.

As of March, 2024 Australia is home to:

• 237 native frog species.
• 952 native lizard and snake species.
• 32 native turtle species.
• 2 native crocodile species.
• 6 non-native naturalised exotic species.